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ROCHESTER; 



Its Founders ai\u its F 



uui 



BY 



Ss'^^i^!^' 



HOWARD L. OSGOOD. 



Read before the Rochester Historical Society, April i 




A distinction must be made between 
the first settlers within the present lim- 
its our city and those who actually es- 
tablished it as a settlement. The first 
white settler on the site of Rochester 
was undoubtedly Ebenezer Allan, a man 
whose repute appears to have been whol- 
ly disrepute, and therefore is best when 
unknown. Before 1812, a few settlers 
lived near the Genesee Falls, but they 
certainly made no effort to establish a 
village, and had no influence upon the 
events here chronicled. 

The persons who first planned a vil- 
lage here and induced settlers to immi- 
grate to it, were Nathaniel Rochester, Wil- 
liam Fitzhugh and Charles Carroll. The 
story of the manner in which these men 
became interested in the site of Roche.'^- 
tor has been told many times, but, until 
now, was never, so far as the writer is 
aware, compiled from contemporary 
documents, independent of human mem- 
ory. 

The three gentlemen just mentioned 
were men of high character, accustomed 
to large business transactions. 

Nathaniel Rochester was born in West- 
moreland county, Virginia, on February 
21, 1752. At the age of 16, his father hav- 
ing died and his mother having re- 
married, he was employed by a mer- 
chant at Hillsborough. Orange county. 
North Carolina, and from that time until 
his death was constantly and actively en- 
gaged in commercial affairs. During 
the Revolutionary war he was a resident 
of Hillsborough and was highly honored 
by his fellow citizens. In 1775, being then 
23 years of age, he was a member of the 
committee of safety of Orange county, a 
member of the first provincial convention 
of North Carolina, a justice of the 
peace, a major of militia (commissioned 
September 9, 1775), and pay master of the 
battalion of minute men in that district 
(commissioned October 20, 1775.) In April, 
1776, he was made lieutenant colonel 
of militia and in May of the same year 
was elected a member of the convention 
which formulated and adopted the con- 
stitution of his state. In the same year 
(May 11th,) he was appointed deputy 
commissary general of military and 



other stores in North Carolina for the use 
of the Continental army with the rank and 
pay of colonel. A severe illness then 
compelled him to retire from further ser- 
vice in the field. But he was not allowed 
to cast off public duties, for he was elec- 
ted member of assembly, clerk of the 
court of Orange county and was 
appointed a commissioner to es- 
tablish and superintend a manufactory 
of arms at Hillsborough for the 
Continental army. In 177S he became a 
business partner of Colonel Thomas Hart, 
whose daughter afterward married Henry 
Clay. For the following five years he 
was engaged in trade in Hillsborough 
and in Philadelphia, and at the close of 
the war he removed to Hagerstown, 
Maryland, where Colonel Hart then re- 
sided, and there established a consider- 
able mercantile business and built and 
operated manufactories of nails and of 
rope, besides a flour mill. His partners 
were, Colonel Hart in the rope and nail 
business, and in tlie flour mill. Captain 
Daniel Stull. His business operations were 
extended even into Kentucky and West 
Tennessee. In 17SS he married Sophia 
Beatty of Hagerstown. In 1790 he was 
elected a member of the Maryland legis- 
lature. In the succeeding year he was 
appointed postmaster at Hagerstown and 
in 1797 became one of the three judges 
of the Washington county court. He 
held the postmastership until 1S04, when 
he resigned to accept his election as 
sheriff of Washington county, and held 
that office until 1S07, when he became 
the first president of the Hagerstown 
bank, with all the affluence which came 
from a salary of one thousand dollars a 
year when applied to the support of a 
large family. This position he retained 
as long as he lived in Maryland. In 180S 
he was appointed an elector of President 
and Vice-President of the United States 
from Maryland. Dansville, then in Steu- 
ben, but now in Livingston, county, N. 
Y., became his home in May, 1810. In 
January, 1814, he sold his property at 
Dansville, comprising a grist mill, a saw 
mill, seven hundred acres of land, an 
interest in a wool carding shop, and the 
first paper mill in Western New York, for 



$24,000, and moved in April, 1815, to a 
farm in East Bloonifield, Ontario county. 
In 1816 he was again appointed a presi- 
dential elector. In April, 1818, he came 
to Rochester. In 1S21 he succeeded in pro- 
curing the erection of the county of 
Monroe and was immediately appointed 
county clerk. In 1822 he sat in the New 
York legislature and two years later he 
became the president of the Bank of 
Rochester, the first bank In this city. He 
died May 17, 1831, honored and lamented, 
having lived a life of great service to his 
fellow men. 

Colonel William Pitzhugh was born in 
Calvert county, Maryland, October 6, 
1761. He WPS an officer in the Continental 
army under General Nathaniel Green in 
his southern campaigns; and, for a time, 
he, and his brother Peregrine, were em- 
ployed as aides on Washington's personal 
staff. He afterwards drew a pension for 
his services. His father's estate was on 
the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, near 
the mouth of the Patuxent river and 
was much exposed to the incursions of 
the enemy during the war. After the 
war. Colonel Fitzhugh. having inherited 
a considerable property, settled upon a 
large estate near Hagerstown. Maryland. 
and was elected to the legislature of 
that state. He moved to the town of 
Groveland. Livingston county, in May. 
1816, the emigrant party consisting of 
forty persons and Conestoga wagons 
drawn by twenty-seven horses. He died 
at his home, "Hampton," on December 
29, 1839. He was a ho.spitable, elegant, 
courtly, dignified. Christian gentleman 

Charles Carroll was born upon his 
father's estate at Carrollsburg, Maryland 
(now the site of the national capital) on 
November 7. 1767. He became a large 
land holder and a man of extended activ- 
ity in commercial matters. His home 
was Bellevue, on Georgetown Heights. 
Maryland. He was known as Charles 
Carroll of Bellevue to distinguish him 
from his cousin Charles, of Carrolllon. 
He came to the town of Groveland, Liv- 
ingston county, in the spring of 1815, and 
made a new home at Williamsburg. In 
1818 he was appointed United States reg- 
ister of deeds for the territory of Mis- 
souri, with an office at Franklin, and re- 
sided there for some years. The wanton 
murder of his son at that place caused 
him to return with his family to Wil- 
liamsburg, where he lived for the re- 
mainder of his life, and died October 
28, 1823. He was distinguished in familj, 
honorable at all times, cultivated and a 
host whose house was always open lo his 
friends. The family home after his death 
was at the " Hermitage," about three 
miles south of Williamsburg. 

Messrs. Carroll and Fitzhugh never 
lived in Rochester. 



In the year 1799, Charles Carroll, of 
Bellevue, and his brother, Daniel Carroll, 
of Duddington, made a trip of observa- 
tion through the Genesee country, but 
made no purchase of land. In this year 
Colonel Peregrine Fitzhugh moved to 
Geneva and a few years later made a 
home at Sodus. 

In the month of September,1800, Charles 
Carroll, William Fitzhugh, and Nathaniel 
Rochester came to Western New York, 
leaWng Hagerstown on horse back, fol- 
lowed by a mounted negro servant lead- 
ing a pack horse to carry their baggage. 
They started for the purpose of finding a 
suitable country in which to settle. Col- 
i onel Rochester had already invested in 
lands in Tennessee and Kentucky and, in 
the summer previous to the journey just 
mentioned, he had been into Ohio looking 
for a free country where his family could 
be reared away from the influences of 
slaver.v. 

The three friends crossed the Mary- 
land line into Pennsylvania, passed 
through Shippensburg and Carlisle,thence 
along the road on the west bank of the 
Susquehanna to its juncture with Lycom- 
ing creek, at Williamsport, and 
there took the Charles William- 
son road to the Genesee. They 
climbedt he mountains to Blossburg (then 
BIoss's). then passed down the Tioga 
river to Painted Post, then up the Conhoc- 
ton, through Bath, crossed over to Judge 
Hornell's(now Hornellsville),then through 
Dansville to Williamsburg. At Williams- 
burg there was a small settlement, com- 
posed of a tavern and a few houses, the 
remnants of Charles Williamson's pro- 
jected great city. Of Williamsburg not a 
trace now remains; even its ruins are no 
more. 

In passing through Dansville (named 
after Captain Dan Faulkner), Colonel 
Rochester was struck with the advan- 
tages of the water power and purchased 
one hundred and twenty acres at that 
place, including the most desirable mill 
seats on both sides of the Canaseraga. 

At Williamsburg our travelers looked 
across that beautiful valley over the 
famous Genesee flats and were deligtited 
with the beauty of the situation and the 
fertility of the soil. Colonel Fitzhugh and 
Major Carroll bought of Charles William- 
son, at $2 per acre, twelve thousand acres, 
lying partly on the eastern slope of the 
valley and partly upon the flats on both 
sides of Canaseraga creek. Colonel Roch- 
ester also purchased a small farm of four 
hundred acres near the lands bought by 
his friends. 

The friends returned to Maryland and 
reached Hagerstown about the 12th of 
October. In 1801 Carroll and Fitzhugh 
again came to the Genesee country and 
made further purchases; Colonel Roches- 
ter set out with them, but illness com- 
pelled him to turn back. This trip was 
taken between October 7th and November 



)N EXCHANGE 






12th.. In August and September, 1802, 
Colonel Fitzhugh and Colonel Rochester 
again visited their purchases, but with- 
out Major Carroll. 

It has been the universal statement 
that these three friends purchased the 
One hundred Acre Tract, (the nucleus 
of our city), in this year, 1802, but such is 
not the fact. In this year Major Carroll 
■ did not visit this region, and his own 
signature appears on the contract of 
sale, dated November 8, 1803. 

The circumstances of the purchase were 
as follows: About the 7th of October, 
Rochester, Carroll and Fitzhugh left Ha- 
gerstown for the Genesee, visited their 
former purchases, went to Geneva to 
make payments at the land office, and 
turned their faces homeward. But Mr. 
Johnston, the land agent at Geneva, 
learning that they were interested in 
water powers in Maryland, called their 
attention to the fine power at the Gen- 
esee falls. They then agreed with him 
that they would go to the upper falls and 
examine the property, and would meet 
Mr. Johnston at Bath to give their 
answer. , 

Rochester, Carroll and Fitzhugh, com 
ing by the rough woods road from Can- 
andaigua, crossed the river on horse 
back, not without trepidation, at the slip- 
pery ford a little north of the present mill 
dam. 

The upper falls (or rather an extended 
cascade) stretched across the river about 
where the aqueduct is now situated, 
rind were of a total vertical height of 
about fourteen feet. They were blasted 
away to make room for the aqueducts 
and a water passage under them and 
there is now only a continuous rapids. 
On the west side of the river, e.Ktend- 
ing up stream from the top of the falls, 
was a small island separated from the 
west bank by a narrow channel, thus pro- 
viding a natural race-way. From this 
channel the water was led in a rude flume 
to the old Allan mill on the flats below. 
Ebenezer Allan, in the fall of 1789, had 
built two mills, S-rst a saw mill and sec- 
ond a grist mill. The spring freshet of 
1S03 had carried away the saw mill and 
had seriously undermined the grist mill. 

Our travelers rode through the forest 
along the portage leading to King's land- 
ing, below the lower falls, until they 
looked down upon the old mill, now 
almost in ruins, and, descending the 
sloping bank, entered the little log house 
under the present site of E. R. Andrews's 
printing house. The mill was inhabited 
then only by the ubiquitous rattlesnake, 
whose meditations were seldom inter- 
rupted except by some settler whose 
family had become tired of the contin- 
uous succession of pork and mush, hom- 
iny and bacon, and had demanded a 
feast of real wheat bread. 

No more than one-half an acre was 



cleared of the trees; the stumps still 
remained; and the tangle of briars, grape 
vines and saplings in the clearing, was 
broken only by the narrow and thorny 
path to the mill. What a scene of de.<?o- 
lation! An abandoned log house, the 
roof broken in, the door awry, wild 
raspberry shoots obstructing the en- 




ffoJLoi 



f^ iU. C?oM^ 



iKf- 



PORTAGE ALONG RIVER. 

trance, and a rattlesnake to greet the 
traveler. Inside the building were the 
little mill stones, and the primitive, dilap- 
idated machinery; the floor was broken 
and decayed; and the porcupines had 
gnawed the bunks, window sills and 
benches. Under the mill was a little 
tub wheel, patched alnuast beyond 
repair; and the flume from the fall no 
longer held water. 

Oliver Phelps bought 184,320 acres from 
the Indians for a mill lot; of this amount 
Allan obtained 100 acres to build the mill 
upon; and one half an acre was more 
than enough to clear, both for the foun- 
dation and for the timber to build the 
mill. 

But these travelers had not come to 
examine the aesthetics of the place. 
They found a fall capable of producing 
great power and easy to adapt to com- 
mercial purposes. The land near the 
river was elevated above the ordinary 
stages of water, there were two great 
falls lower down the river, settlements 
were advancing to the neighborhood, and 
there seemed to be evidence that the 
water power and the one hundred acres 
of land would be worth the $1,750 at 



which they were offered. They decided to 
purchase the mill lot; and then and there 
began the germ of Rochester. 

The friends left the mill and, return- 
ing to the portage, traveled along the 
west side of the river to King's (now 
Hanford's) landing and arranged with 
Gideon King to care for the mill in con- 
sideration of having its use. They then 
turned back and traveled through New 
Hartford, Big Tree, Wiliamsburg and 
Dansville, to Bath. At Bath they met 
Mr. Johnston and, on November 8, 1803, 
an agreement was there executed, be- 
tween Mr. Johnston, as the agent (under 
Robert Troup) for Sir William Pulte- 
ney, on the one part, and Carroll, Fitz- 
hugh and Rochester, on the other part. 
That agreement is as follows: 

A CONTRACT, Made the eighth day of No- 
vember, in the year one thousand eight hun- 
dred and three — Between Charles Car- 
roll, William Fitzhugh, and Nathaniel Roches- 
ter, of the county of Washington, and state o! 
Maryland, esquires, of the first part— and Sir 
William Pulteney. of the county of Middlesex, 
in the united kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland, baronet, by John Johnston, his attor- 
ney, by virtue of a Letter of Substitution 
bearing date the first day of February, in 
the year one Thousand eight hundred and two, 
from Robert Troup, esquire, the attorney of 
the said Sir William Pulteney, by virtue of a 
letter of attorney, bearing date the 29th day 
of July, in the year one thousand eight hun- 
dred and one, and recorded in the secretary's 
office of the state of New York, in lib. deeds 
endorsed M. R. N., page 409, etc., of the 
second part.as follows, (to wit) First — The said 
Sir William Pulteney agrees to sell to the said 
Charles Carroil, William Fitzhugh, and Nathaniel 
Rochester all that certain tract of land in 
township number one in the short range on the 
west pide of the Genesee river in the county 
of Genesee (late Ontario) and state of New 
York, being the tract commonly known and 
designated as the Genesee fall mill lot and 
containing one hundred acres together with all 
the privileges and advantages of the waters 
thereon and the mills thereon erected. 

Secondly— The said Charles Carroll, ■ William 
Fitzhugh and Nathaniel Rochester agree to pay 
for the said tract of land and mills the sum ot 
one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars 
in manner following, (that is to say) the sum 
of three hundred and fifty dollars on the first 
of May next and the remainder in four equal 
annual payments thereafter with interest from 
the first day of May next. 

Thirdly— The said William Pulteney agrees 
that immediately after the full payment of the 
said purchase money, in manner above particu- 
larly appointed, he the said Sir William Pul- 
teney will execute, and cause to be delivered 
to the said Charles Carroll, William Fitzhugh 
and Nathaniel Rochester a good and sufficient 
warranty deed for the said tract of land and 
mills, with the appurtenances. 

In witness whereof, the said party of the 
first part, and the said Sir William Pulteney. 
by his said attorney John Johnston by virtue 



of the letter of substitution aforesaid, have 
hereunto set their hands and seals, on the day 
and in the year first above written. 

Sealed and delivered in the presence of John 
Taylor. 



^^^^, 



(ENDORSED.) 
It is agreed by the parties to the within con- 
tract that in case the within mentioned mills 
are destroyed by Are or any other casuality 
the loss arising therefrom shall be 
borne wholly by the said Charles Carroll, Wil- 
liam Fitzhugh and Nathaniel Rochester and in 
no degree by Sir William Pulteney. 

N. Rochester, 
Ch. Carroll. 
Wm. Fitzhugh. 

Having concluded these arrangements, 
they travelled homeward, reaching Ha- 
gerstown about November 20th. On this 
trip were accompanied by a young Mary- 
lander named Thomas Begole, who, in 
the following spring, was sent back to 
the Genesee country by Colonel Rochester 
to take charge of property there. He was 
instructed to go to the Falls in order to 
see that the mill was properly cared for 
by Mr. King, but finding that King had 
died, he put Salmon Fuller in charge. 
Fuller made sufficient repairs upon the 
mill to be able to operate it and occupied 
it in 1805. In 1S06 the mill was destroyed, 
either by a fire or a freshet, and Mr. Ful- 
ler incontinently took the mill stones 
and machinery to his own new mill on 
Irondequoit creek. The mill is gone; 
even its site is buried; the rattlesnake has 
departed; but the mill stones came back 
and are still with us. 

The three proprietors of the One Hun- 
dred Acre Tract remained in Maryland 
for several years without visiting their 
Genesee property. In the spring of 1809, 
however. Colonel Rochester came to 
Dansville to make arrangements for re- 
moving his family to that place, and 
brought with him his sons, William 
B. and John C. Rochester. His saw mill 
and grist mill were to be repaired and put 
in condition for active operation, a paper 
mill was to be furnished and his farm 
needed care. The father soon returned to 



Maryland, but left his sons in charge of 
his property until autumn. 

On March 30th, in this year, the legis- 
lature of New York passed an act pro- 
viding for the " building of a bridge 
across the Genesee river between the 
towns of Boyle and Northampton at the 
place where the north state road crosses 
the said Genesee river," and authorizing 
the supervisors of Ontario and Genesee 
counties to raise the sum of two thousand 
dollars ($2,000.) for that purpose; one 
half to be raised in 1809 and one-half in 
1810. 

In May, ISIO, Colonel Rochester brought 
his family to Dansville. Mrs. Carroll and 
Mrs. Fitzhugh up to this time had de- 
clined to live on the wild frontier of 
Western New York, and did not give 
their consent to leave Maryland until 
four years later. 

The road from Hagerstown to Dans- 
ville was about two hundred and seventy- 
five miles in length and the family were 
over three weeks in reaching their desti- 
nation. The train was composed of two 
carriages, six or seven riding horses 
for the father and his sons, and two or 
three large baggage wagons hauled by 
four horses each. With them came two 
or three young men from Hagerstown, 
and a half dozen negroes. The journey 
was arduous.not to say dangerous. A trav- 
eler who had passed over this road across 
the mountains only a few years before, 
had recorded that it was so poorly cut 
out that it looked as if the trees had 
been gnawed off by beavers and that he 
was often in danger of being mired. 
Probably at the time when Colonel Roch- 
ester was making this journey the road 
had been somewhat improved, but those 
of you who have traveled through a 
back woods country and over corduroy 
bridges, have seen the propriety of pro- 
viding the horses with means of aquatic, 
arborial, and terrestrial locomotion. 

The caravan finally reached Dansville 
in safety, except that one teamster was 
thrown from his wagon in crossing the 
mountains and was killed. The surviv- 
ors reached Dansville on June 10th, 1810, 
and the family put up at Stout's tavern 
until their home should be prepared. 

After Colonel Rochester's arrival in 
Dansville, the settlement of his family 
and the details of conducting his busi- 
ness took his time to the exclusion of 
attention to the Falls property, and dur- 
ing the remainder of this year his saw- 
mill, grist mill, paper mill and wool- 
carding shop made such heavy drafts 
upon his purse and his time that he be- 
came discouraged about his ability to 
retain his interest in the Falls lot and 
offered to sell it to his friend Carroll; 
but Major Carroll magnanimously de- 
clined to buy. saying: "Hold on audit's 
an estate for any man." 

Colonel Rochester in reply wrote to 




FIRST MAP OF ROCHESTER. 

Charles Carroll. " Dansville, January 13, 

1811 I return you my 

sincere thanks for your advice to keep 
my Genesee Falls estate. I am aware of 
the growing value of that property and 
although I am not so sanguine as you are 
about its future value, yet I believe the 
time is not distant when it will be worth 
.$15,000 or $5,000 a share. I have been ap- 
plied to for building lots there and there 
is no doubt of there soon being a village 
there and much business done if lots 
could be had. It must become a town ot 
great business at some future period." 

The commencement of the bridge, where 
the present Maui street bridge stands, 
settled the importance of property at tiie 
falls. The nearest bridge was at Avon, 
and the country west and northwest of 
the falls was being placed on the mar- 
ket. The progress of the bridge and the 
rapid immigration of settlers forced Col- 
onel Rochester, in the summer of 1811, 
to take steps to lay out a village on the 
mill lot. He had a knowledge of survey- 
ing and in July began to stake out some 
lots among the trees and in the bogs on 
the property. 

Enos Stone, in the previous year, had 
brought his family to the falls and had 
begun housekeeping in a little shanty on 
the bank of the river near the east end 
of the ford. Colonel Rochester appointed 
Mr. Stone his local agent and promised 
him a good lot in tlie prospective village 
for his services- The first lots surveyed 
were those about the corners made by the 
new state road which followed substan- 
tially the pres.3nt lines of Main and State 



streets, and led to the Big Ridge road to 
Niagara and Buffalo. Tlie Power's block 
lot was thii first one laid out. The lines 
of Buffalo (now West Main street) and ol 
-Mill Litreat (now Exchange), were deter- 
mined and at first a large lot on the oor- 
ner now occupied by Smith's Arcade, was 
sent apart for a public square. Some 
fifty lots in all. of one-quarter of an acre 
each, wer'3 staked out, and Mr. Stone was 
directed to offer them for sale. Advertise- 
ments were soon inserted in the Canan- 
daigua and Geneva newspapers and ap- 
plicants began to appear. 

Willian; Scott, then of Dar*ville, gave 
this account of Colonel Rochester at this 
period: 

About this time (ISll) Colonel Rochester was 
making a visit every few weeks to the "Falls," 
as Rochester was yet called, to superintend 
the laying out of village lots. On his way home 
from a collecting tour I met him returning 
from one of these trips, at Begole's Tavern, 
a little log house standing about fifty rods 
northeast of the residence of the late Judge 
Carroll. I see him now, riding up to the door, 
seated firmly on a small bay pacing mare, 
and carrying his surveyor's chain and compass 
strapped to the saddle. After a well cooked 
supper to which our sharp appetites did full 
justice, we were shown to a room in the gar- 
ret containing one bed. . . , We occupied 
!t together, though it was long before sleep 
visited us, for Colonel Rochester was full of 
the flattering prospects at the Falls. " The 
place must become an important business 
point." said he, and he expressed regret that 
he had spent so much time and means in Dans- 
ville, instead of going to the Falls at once, 
adding, " If I had just made over to you 
by gift a deed of all my property at Dansville, 
and gone direct to the Falls,! should have been 
the gainer. Dansville will be a fine village, 
but the Falls, sir, is capable of great things." 
I reminded him that he had established a 
paper mill and other machinery at Dansville 
and had otherwise aided in giving an impetus 
to the business of that already thrifty town. 
" Yes," said he, " but I am past the age of 
building up two towns." During the conver- 
sation I remarked that the name the " Falls," 
was good enough then, but added, " of course 
you will find a more fitting one as the place in- 
creases." " Ah," said he, " I have already 
thought of that, and have decided to give it 
my family name." and that was the first time 
I ever heard the word "Rochester" applied 
to the present prosperous city. 

Colonel Rochester was a fine type of the 
true Southern gentleman. His manner was 
commanding. He was then venerable in years, 
though his step was firm. He was tall, per- 
haps quite six feet high, stooped a little and 
always walked with a cane. He was dignified 
and affable in ordinary intercourse, though 
somewhat austere to strangers. 

The name " Rochester " was given to 
the village by request of Messrs. Carroll 
and Fitzhugh. 

On October 30, ISll, Rochester writes to 
his partners: " Great quantities of wheat 



are now going from Bloomfieid, Charles 
Town, Hartford, Boyle, etc, etc., to the 
mouth of the Genesee river for want of 
mills to flour it and most of it goes 
through our village and more will as soon 
as the bridge is finished which will be by 
the middle of December unle.ss winter 
sets in earlier than usual. . i have 

sold a few lots on Mill, Carroll and Buf- 
falo streets at $50. . . .and have no 
doubt but that a dozen houses will be 

erected next season i have 

raised all the unsold lots on Carroll and 
Mill streets to $50 and sell the back lots 
at $30. After next season when a mill 
and several houses are erected we can 

raise the price of the lots The 

lots sold and bespoken are Nos 1 2 19 
20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33,'35' 36* 
67, 45, 59, 60. " 

The last payment for the mill lot was 
made on June 22, 1808; the lot was sur- 
veyed and its boundaries determined No- 
vember 7, ISll; and a deed was given No- 
vember 18th following. 

To his brother-in-law, Elie Beatty, he 
writes under date November 19, 1811: " I 
have been to the falls of Genesee lately 
and laid out and sold some more lots say 
about twenty-five in all, and, for want of 
funds to build a good merchant mill 
there, I have leased a mill seat for ten 
years which will contribute very mudh 
to the improvement of the town and 
neighborhood. . . . Could I sell one of 
my mill seats there I would soon be set- 
tled at the falls myself. My business is 
very good here, but would be much more 
productive at the falls or village of Roch- 
ester. " 

The first lot sold was No. 26, to Enos 
Stone on November 20, 1811, for $50. George 
L. Whitmore and Daniel Tinker, of Pitts- 
ford, on December 29, 1811, bouglit lots 
37 and 38 for $100; and on February 19, 
1812, the third sale was made to Henry 
Skinner, of Geneseo, who bought lot No. 1 
(the Powers block corner) for $200, and 
he was required to " build and erect a 
dwelling house on the said lot not less 
than thirty by twenty feet, with brick or 
stone chimney, said house to be raised 
and enclosed on or before the first day of 
January next (1813) and finished within 
six months thereafter. " 

This requirement was inserted in ail 
the early contracts in order to secure 
the immigration of the purchasers and to 
prevent, as far as possible, mere land 
speculation. One can imagine the trepi- 
dation of Mr. Skinner when he agreed 
to erect so palatial a structure in the 
back woods, at a place where, only two 
years before, a member of assembly 
had said in debate that, if a bridge were 
placed at the falls, only the muskrats 
would use it. But the bridge was com- 
pleted early in 1812 and results soon fol- 
lowed. 
Mr. Skinner in 1812 built a residence 



/ 



" with a brick or stone chimney " on th.; 
tract, and his friend Hamlet Scrantom 
was its first occupant.In this year Fran- 
cis Brown, Matthew Brown, Jr., and 
Thomas Mumford laid out the village of 
Frankfort adjoining the one hundred 
acres on the north and soon had a grist 
mill in operation, but settlers preferred 
the neighborhood of the bridge and 
Frankfort did not begin to grow till 
after 1820. 

In 1S12, thirteen lots, in all, were sold 
by Colonel Rochester; in 1813, twenty- 
seven lots; in 1814 only one lot, largely 
on account of the pendency of the war 
of ltil2 and the activity of British opera- 
tions against the lake frontiers. (You 
will remember that on May 14, 1814, the 
village and its " suburbs " could furnish 
only thirty-three men to repel the Brit- 
ish, and that there were then only twen- 
ty houses at the place). In 1815, thirty- 
two lots were sold; after which time 
sales became much more rapid. 

In 1813 Elisha Ely had applied to Enos 
Stone for water privileges and Mr. Stone 
wrote to Mr. Rochester on June 13tli 

" Dear Sir; At the request of Mr. Bly, 
the bearer of this letter, I would inform 
you that his wishes are to erect water 
works on your land at this village by 
a lease, if you think proper to encourage 
him. I think it would be an advantage 
to the settlement of the place if a dam 
from the west side of the race to the 
river was made, that mills might be built 
and not injure your prinicipal mill seat. 
The wishes of Mr. Ely are such that 
he thought proper to call on you and, if 
you think proper, contract with him 
as Mr. Reynolds is acquainted with him. 
I think Mr. Ely would be a suitable man 
to engage and would help the settlement 
of the place." 

An arrangement was made with Mr. 
Ely, the terms of which do not appear. 
and he immediately dug a race way, the 
first artificial one upon the tract, and 
built a saw mill which began running on 
December 14, 1813, though no actual busi- 
ness was done in it until April first, 
following. In 1814 and 1815, Mr. Ely 
built a grist mill on the tract and Colonel 
Rochester writes in a characteristic man- 
ner to Mr. Fitzhugh from Dansville, 
June 18th, 1814: ..." I have been to 
the Palls since you left us and given Mr. 
Ely a lease conformably to your and 
Major Carroll's proposition to him. He 
will proceed to erect a good merchant 
mill. I did not mention, at the time 
you made the offer to Mr. Ely, that his 
erecting mills there would prevent me 
from doing it for some time, as his and 
Captain Brown's mills will be enough for 
that place for some time. ... I knew 
you and Major Carroll did not suppose 
it would have the effect of frustrating 
my plans, because I have every reason 
to believe you would have preferred my 



building the mills to his doing it, from 
your uniform friendship to me for more 
than twenty years and because my re- 
moval to that place and laying out si.v 
or eight thousand dollars there would 
have contributed fully as much to the ad- 
vantage of the place as his laying it out, 
who is already an inhabitant. Should 
peace take place before next spring I 
shall probably settle in our village at 
that time." 

And to Mr. Carroll he writes: "I went 
to the falls about three weeks after you 
left us and gave Captain Ely a lease for 
a mill seat agreeably to your ani 
Colonel Fitzhugh's proposition to him. 
. . . The same sense of delicacy pre- 
vented my saying anything to you about 
it until the lease was executed to lily, 
but it frustrates my plan of erecting a 
mill and removing to the Falls until a 
peace takes place, as Brown's and Ely s 
mills will be suITicient for that place un- 
til we have peace. Then I believe half 
a dozen mills will not be too many. I 
saw Captain Ely at the Falls on Thurs- 
day last; he had just returned from Mas- 
sachusets where he had been for car- 
penters, millwrights, etc. He intended 
commencing this day with about fifteen 
workmen and said he would have his 
mill at work by the 1st of December 
next. There is very little improvement 
going on at the Falls, not more than 
three or four houses building. If the 
I war continues longer than next spring 
my present intention is to purchase or 
rent a mill in Ontario or Genesee counties 
j in order to have something to do until 
the end of the war when I shall most 
I certainly settle at the Falls if I live so 
long." 

In 1S14. Carroll and Fitzhugh made 
their first visit to the Genesee coiintry 
since the purchase of the mill lot and 
then agreed with Colonel Rochester con- 
cerning an ultimate division of that 
property among the partners. In 1815, 
Mr. Carroll moved his family to Wil- 
liamsburgh and in 1S16 Mr. Fitzhugh fol- 
lowed bin). But the labor of marketing 
the joint properly had fallen entirely on 
Colonel Rochester, and to him belongs 
the greater part of the credit of found- 
ing this city. 

He reported to his friends on July 28, 
1816: " Our books show that I have been 
to the Falls and to Geneva twenty-three 
times on our joint business and most 
of those times when I resided in Dans- 
ville. I have done all the surveying ex- 
cept part of a day last summer when I 
had a surveyor. I have frequently been 
detained two and three days at a time 
. and had to entertain many 
people (particularly when I resided at 
Dansville) who called on me to purchase 
lots, make enquiry about the village, etc.. 
It is five years this month since I laid out 
about fifty lots." 



In August, 1817, a partitition of the One 
Hundred Acre tract was made and the 
different lots were distributed among the 
proprietors in severalty. 

Some years later Colonel Rochester told 
the story of the founding of this city in 
a letter to his half brother, John G. Crit- 
cher: 

" Rochester. State of New York, August 15, 
1825. , . . In the spring of 1800 having 

&ix children then living. . . I conclud- 

ed that it would be best for them that I should 
remove to the west where more could be done 
for them, than in an old settled country. . . . 
I therefore visited the northwestern territory 
(now Ohio), Kentucliy and Tennessee with a 
view to purchasing an eligible situation for my 
family. I returned in August with a deter- 
mination to remove to Kentucky, but on my 
return home two of my neighbors and most 
intimate friends were about to visit this part 
of the state of New York which had been but 
recently settled. They prevailed on me to 
come with them. I then saw the great ad- 
vantages this country had over the South- 
western states and we all purchased with a de- 
termination to remove here as soon as we 
could close our business in Maryland. They 
were very wealthy men and purchased 12.000 
acres of the best land in the country and I 
purchased about 500 acres on which were 
several good milt seats. On our return home, 
the families of my two friends were very mufJi 
opposed to removing to this country and I did 
not like to ct-me within them. . . . until 
May, ISIO. when I removed to this country and 
built a grist mill, paper mill and saw mill 
at Dansville, about forty miles from this 
place, where I resided five years, when I sold 
there and purchased a very valuable farm 
about twenty miles from hence where I resid- 
ed during the late war and until seven years 
ago. when I removed to this place and rented 
out my .farm. Two years after my first visit 
and purchase in this country, say in 1802, my 
two neighbors and friends and I visited this 
country again to see our first purchases, when 
we purchased 100 acres of land at the falls of 
Genesee river for which we gave seven hun- 
dred pounds. The whole of this 100 acres has 
been laid out in streets, allies, and cjuarter 
acre lots and pretty much covered with build- 
ings, together with as much more adjoining, 
which is included in the village (what is called 
a town in the south). In 1811. the year after 
my removal to this country I laid out a village 
here and in 1812 several small houses were 



built. but the war commencing and being rather 
exposed to the incursions of the enemy very 
few improvements were made until the close of 
the war in 181.5. 

Since then the village has had the most rapid 
growth perhaps of any place in the United 
States and now contains 5.000 inhabitants and 
is now improving more rapidly than at any 
former period. Not only the site of the vil- 
lage, but the country about it was all a wil- 
derness in 1811, but is now a thickly settled 
country that turned out from ten to twelve 
thousand persons who met General Lafayette 
here on the 10th of June last. There can be 
no doubt but that Rochester will be one of the 
greatest manufacturing places in the United 
States. It embraces more local advantages 
than any place I have ever seen and I have 
visited almost all the states. The land for 100 
miles in every direction is of the finest quality. 
The grand canal from Albany to Lake Erie 
runs through the center of the village. All 
the land carriage to the whole shores of Lake 
Ontario is but two miles. The Genesee river, 
which runs through the center of the village 
north and south is "navigable forty miles to 
the south and the canal opens a water com- 
munication to all the shores of Lakes Erie, 
Huron. Michigan, and Superior, and their nav- 
igable streams; and within two miles of where 
I now write there are at least 500 seats for 
water works, a great number of which are 
now occupied for merchant mills, saw mills, 
fulling mills, paper mills, oil mills, cotton and 
woolen factories, nail factories, furnaces, etc.. 
etc. All strangers are astonished at the rapid 
growth of the village and the quantity of busi- 
ness done in it. It is a thoroughfare for an 
immense number of travelers from all quar- 
ters, east, W€St. noith, and south, and many 
from Europo, to see the canal, the aqueduct 
across the Genesee river and the Falls of 
Mimara and it is on the route from the New En- 
i^Iand states to the west and southwestern 
states. . . My third of the 100 acres 

of land purchased at this place is now worth 
one hundred thousand dollars exclusive of the 
houses thereon, but in order to get it settled 
I sold the lots very low." 

Much honor is due to all those other 
sturdy men who developed the village 
of Rochester; but their history is not per- 
tinent to the founding of the village or 
city, in the exact meaning of that word. 

The village of Rochesterville was in- 
corporated April 21, 1817, by an act of 
the legislature ; and the founding ot 
Rochester was accomplished. 



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